Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
Today, we look at the second chapter in the Gospel of John. Jesus and his disciples went to a wedding in Cana. Soon the wedding ran out of wine. I hope that doesn’t happen you attend weddings.
Jesus’ mother, thinking he might want to help, said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus replied, “Not my problem.” But Mary persisted in hoping Jesus would get involved, so she said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
After a while, Jesus decided it was his problem after all, so he said to the servants, “Fill those jugs with water.” Then he said, “Take some to the headwaiter.” The headwaiter tasted it and said to the bridegroom, “This isn’t average wine. This is the good stuff. Why didn’t you serve this first?”
Let’s pray this story from the viewpoint of several actors.
Lord, in this story you are a full participant in human culture, a welcome guest at a wedding. Help us follow your example. Help us not to isolate ourselves in churchland with people who look like us and think like us and believe like us. Help us to participate fully and freely in our neighbourhood, our workplace, our community. Lord, how narrow we have grown, seeing the same people every week, having the same conversations about religion and politics and world events, hearing the same sermon at church. Jesus, help us to engage a wider circle, those from different economic classes, social strata, and countries. Teach us to care for outsiders — immigrants, widows, orphans, prisoners, and gays.
Lord, your mother was accustomed to domestic life with you in your Nazareth home. But in this story she learned a new way of relating to you. You brushed off her and the problem and she had to wait in uncertainty about what you might do. Like Mary, we have grown accustomed to our domestic life with you. You are the carpenter in our family, and we organize the household. But our intuition says you are not as domesticated as we think. Our churches don’t demonstrate your power to build community and make good wine. Jesus, teach us like Mary to see the problem, bring it to you, receive your response, and wait for your action. Help us not to strategize our solutions for the wine we know is missing–help us look to you, to find in you a miracle that supplies only the best wine–no matter when it comes our way.
Lord, in this story the disciples saw your first sign and believed in you. O Jesus, this exposes the problem of believing. It was not a rational problem: where the disciples needed the right system of doctrine, it was not a philosophical problem: where they needed to discover and adopt the right world view. It was a spiritual problem to see you at work, to look beyond the wine to the winemaker. Help us to see the work you do.
Jesus, who understood what happened? Did the servants understand when they drew water from the jugs? Did the headwaiter investigate the source of good wine? Did the bride and bridegroom understand the transformation? We are your disciples, we have caught a glimpse of water turned to wine, of the carpenter become winemaker. Jesus, help us drink your good wine, show us the source, teach us to believe in you.
Amen.
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Pray with Me 